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HE BEARETH 5ABI 
A BUGLE OR HUNTER'S HORN, ' 
GARNI5HED AND FURNISHED ARGENT. 



TRIBE HATHAWAY 



DESCENDENTS OF 



THOMAS HATHAWAY 



AND HIS WIFE 



MOLLY GILBERT 




^-?c^ 



BY 

CHARLES F. HATHAWAY 

NEW YORK. N. Y. 



%> 



GOTHAM PRESS, N. Y. 



3\b4£tL 
A3 









Tribe Hathaway 



&9lM> 




HOME OF THE HATHAWAYS 

New Bedford, Mass. 






n| HE dwelling from which the picture shown above was taken was built 
in New Bedford, Mass., by Thomas Hathaway in 1772, and al- 
though he was a Tory, and at the breaking out of the war fled to 
Nova Scotia, it was a mark for the British soldiers in 1 778, although 
it was not much damaged. 

This is the Thomas Hathaway who moved to Yates (formerly On- 
tario) County, N. Y., with Jemima Wilkinson, in I 789, and who furnished 
nearly all the funds to establish her colony in that district. 

Hettie Green, "the richest woman in the world," was also born in this 
house. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

In this brief skeich of the Hathaway tribe, I shall dwell principally 
upon the histories of those whose portraits appear herein, and as the record 
of all the great names of colonial days can be found in any history of those 
times, I shall merely make the connecting link of our line with the pilgrims 
and other noted men and women whose names are associated with the early 
history of this country. I shall also add a few of the more important of the 
thousands of notes I have made of the name, so that some other enterprising 
chap who, in the future, desires to go deeper into the record of the family, 
may have considerably more than the writer had, to start him on his journey of 

research. 

The immediate branch of the Hathaway family most interesting to the 
writer, is that branch which descended from the Thomas Hathaway who, in 
company with the Jemima Wilkinson colony, moved to Ontario County, 
N. Y., in the year 1 789. He was born in New Bedford, Mass., in 1 731, 
and died in Jerusalem, Yates Co., 1 798, aged 67 years. In 1 764, he 
married Molly Gilbert, the daughter of Col. Thomas Gilbert, a woman of 
rare beauty, intelligence, motherly affection and whole-souled wifely and 
womanly attributes. By this marriage ihere were four children, Thomas, Jr., 
Gilbert, Mary and Elizabeth, all of whom accompanied their father to 
Ontario County. Although he was not the oldest son, nearly all of his father s 
vast estate was willed to him, and at the breaking out of the war he was one 
of the wealthiest men in New England. The dwelling shown in the picture on the 
preceding page, was the first three-story building ever constructed in New Bed- 
ford, and was occupied by Thomas Hathaway and family as a residence. It 
overlooked the bay, on the opposite side of which is Fairhaven, the birthplace 
of Henry Huddleston Rogers (the oil magnate), whose grandmother, I am 
reliably informed, was a Hathaway. Although Thomas Hathaway's immedi- 
ate family was composed of himself, wife and four children, the size of the 
house compared more favorably with a good sized country hotel. But as 
nearly all of his father's property was willed to him, it should be so, for the 
reason that his brothers, sisters and other immediate relatives were compelled 
to look to him for their shelter and maintenance. 

Until the breaking out of the war, Thomas Hathaway followed the 
occupation of shipbuilding, but at the opening of hostilities he fled to Nova 
Scotia, remaining there with the family of Col. Thomas Gilbert, his father- 
in-law, for six years, with the exception of 1 3 months, during which time he 
served on a British man-of-war. Before leaving his home, he placed his 
family in his country residence near New Bedford, where his wife devoted 
herself to their four children. September 5, 1778, the British burned New 
Bedford. Mrs. Hataway v believing her husband's loyalty to the 

4 



crown her safeguard, made no attempt (except to hide her plate) to protect 
herself and family, but she was treated with violence and so shocked that her 
health failed, and in 1 783 died, soon after her husband's return. 

Col. Thomas Gilbert, the father of Molly Gilbert, was the eldest 
son of Nathaniel Gilbert and Hannah Bradford; therefore, the Hathaways 
mentioned in this booklet were descendants of Thomas Gilbert, the loyalist, 
who, on his mother's side, was a descendant of Gov. Bradford, the second 
Chief Magistrate of Plymouth Colony. These Hathaways were also related 
to Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh. Molly and Deborah 
Gilbert were sisters. The latter was married, but left no children. They 
were sisters of Col. Bradford Gilbert — born in 1 746, who married Mary 
Tisdale, Nov. 21, 1776. Wealthy Gilbert, the daughter of Hannah Brad- 
ford and Nathaniel Gilbert, married Ebenezer Hathaway, a relative rvf 
Thomas Hathaway, the subject of this sketch, making two lines of connec- 
tion with Gov. William Bradford. 



DIRECT LINE. 

Arthur Hathaway was born in England and came to America in 1630. 
He is mentioned as being at Marshfield, Mass., in 1643, and at Lakenhem 
(Plimpton) in 1656. On November 2nd, 1652, he married Sarah Cook, 
daughter of John Cook, of the Mayflower. John Cook married Sarah 
Warren, the daughter of Richard Warren, also of the Mayflower. Among 
other children, Arthur and Sarah Hathaway had a son named John, born 
September 17th, 1653, who was twice married. His second wife was 
named Patience (surname unknown), by whom he had a son named Jona- 
than, born June 23rd, 1697. This last-named Jonathan Hathaway mar- 
ried Abigail Nye, June 15th, 1721, by whom, among other children, he 
had a son named Thomas Hathaway, who married Molly Gilbert, and who 
is the principal subject of this sketch. 

Arthur Hathaway, Married Nov. 2, 1652, Sarah Cook, 

Came to Am. in 1 630. Sarah Cook, dau. John Cook, 
B — of the Mayflower. John B — 

D — Cook, married Sarah War- D — 

ren, dau. Richard War- 
ren, also of the Mayflower. 

John Hathaway, Married, Sept. 29, 1 696, Patience — , 2d wife 

(surname unknown). 

B-Sept. 17, 1653 B— 

D— D— 



Jonathan Hathaway, Married, June 15, 1721. Abigail Nye, 

B— June 23, 1697. B— 

D— D— 

Thomas Hathaway, Married, Oct. 1 7, 1 767, Molly Gilbert, 

B— Sept. 18,1731-32 B— Dec. 2, 1739. 

D— 1798 D— 1783. 

Gilbert Hathaway, Married Feby. 4, 1810, Mary Hurd, 

B-April 30, 1772 B- April 12, 1785 

D— May 31, 1857 D— May 8, 1857 

Bradford Gilbert 

Hurd Hathaway, Married, 12—24, 1837, Catherine A. Shear, 

B— Jany. 8, 1814. B-Aug. 10. 1816 

D-Aug. 25, 1887. D-M ay 7, 1894 

Children of Bradford G. H. Hathaway and Catherine A. Shear; 

Mary Adelia, B— March 30, 1839 D-Feby. 12, 1894 

Estell Maria, B-Oct. 1, 1840 D— Nov. 29, 1907 

George Maltby, B-June 22,1842 D-Apr. 1903 

Charles Frank, B— May 7, 1854 

At the close of the Revolution, Thomas Hathaway returned from 
Nova Scotia, and joined his family at New Bedford. His wife, as we 
have already stated, died soon after his return, and the American forces 
having been victorious, his home and birthplace afforded a poor asylum 
for a Tory who had declined to take up arms against the mother country, 
and who had fled to avoid being forced to fight with the colonists. 

From an exhaustive study of the conditions existing at the close of the 
v/ar, as well as the character and subsequent movements of Jemima Wilkin- 
son, I am perfectly satisfied that she foresaw the plight these Tories, who 
fled to Nova Scotia, would, upon their return, be in, and she originated 
her combined religious and colonizing project, for the very purpose of afford- 
ing all such an opportunity of getting away from the very offensive and 
oppressive environments with which all Tories who came back from Nova 
Scotia found themselves surrounded. This explanation of the origin of 
Jemima Wilkinson's project has not, to the writer's knowledge, ever before 
been advanced, but it is certainly correct, else why did Thomas Hathaway 
sell all of his vast estate at so great a sacrifice to join this religious expedition 
of a fanatic woman, who, although as beautiful as she was brilliant, had no 
social standing? Thomas Hathaway was an aristocrat with a line of an- 
cestors as great and as grand as any in the colonial days. He had married 
one of the grandest and noblest women of her day — Molly Gilbert, who 
traced her ancestry back to Otho Gilbert, of England, the father of Sir John 



Gilbert, and to William Bradford, the grandfather of Gov. William Brad- 
ford. Thomas Hathaway could also trace his own ancestry back to the 
"Church of Rewardine within the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire," 
wherein was mounted the "very ancient coat of arms" of the Hathaway 
family, which bore the insignia "He beareth sable a Bugle or Hunter's horn, 
garnished and furnished argent." And back of these ancient days, the 
Hathaways are spoken of in Rudder's History of Gloucester (Sidney), page 
527 as "there was an ancient family of the name of Hathaway, in the County 
of Gloucester," a descendant of which "ancient family" named Richard 
Hathaway, came from the River Wye, about the year 1880, and 
settled in Needham, Mass. This is the only Hathaway who ever came to 
this country since Arthur Hathaway came with the English settlers in 1630. 
Then, if not to escape the taunts and insults of his old friends and associates, 
why did he desert the town of his birth and childhood, sacrifice his property 
and join this new religious project? All the orthodox religion the Hath 
aways, all combined, ever possessed, would not justify the maintenance of a 
pauper s pew in a mission church, and the only Hathaway that was ever 
seriously charged with having religious predelictions, was Deacon Abraham 
Hathaway, and there is no evidence that he was severely afflicted. 

The unwritten history of Thomas Hathaway is truly pathetic. 

Blessed with great wealth and a family name second to none in colonial 

times, he and his devoted wife, Molly Gilbert, had just completed and 

moved into the then beautiful mansion shown on the 3d page of this booklet, 

when the war, which had been long threatening, broke out, and for six years 

he was separated from his wife and children. Loyal to his country and the 

crown, he could not conscientiously join the rebel movement, and therefore 

fled to the family of his father-in-law, Col. Thomas Gilbert, who had taken 

up his residence on the St. John River, in Canada, and returned at the 

close of the war to witness the death of his devoted wife as the result of 

violence from the King's soldiers. For all his wealth and social standing, 

he must have been a very dejected and miserable man. So much for one's 

loyalty to his country. So, with the remnants of his family and fortune, 

he left all of the comforts of his massive home and former environments, 

to go to Yates (then Ontario,) and after experiencing all of the hardships of 

pioneer life, was stricken down with fever and died, a few years after, in a 

log cabin, which was located on or near the little stream that empties into 

Keuka Lake, at Branchport, and not more than a half mile below the 

"Friend's Home"— the latter at this date (August, 1907.) is still standing 

in a fair state of preservation. 

Thomas Hathaway was remembered by men that were very old when 
the writer was a boy, as a very energetic, dignified, precise and "starchy" 



chap of middle age. His dress was always of the colonial pattern, made of 
broadcloth having a greenish tint, and provided with solid gold buttons and 
immaculate lace at the collars and cuffs. On all state occasions he was 
very attentive to Jemima, and possibly at other times, for he was a widower 
and she a beautiful maid — why should he not have been? 

His children were Thomas, Gilbert, Mary and Elizabeth. Gilbert was 
the grandfather of the writer, and was born in New Bedfod, Mass., April 30, 
1772, and died and was buried at Rock Stream, N. Y., May, 1857. 




GILBERT HATHAWAY 

Gilbert Hathaway married Mary Hurd, daughter of Richard Hurd and 
his wife, Mary Lacy, who was the daughter of Judge Lacy, of Litchfield Co., 

8 



Connecticut, from whence the Hurd family moved first to Sandgate, Vermont, 
and from there, in the year 1808 to Rock Stream, N. Y., then known as 
"Hurd's Corners." The Hurds were all fighters and took part in all the wars of 
their day on the American side. One of the Hurds was a general, and Richard 
Hurd, the father of Molly, served thirteen years in the Vermont Legislature 
as representative of Sandgate, Vt. 1 hey originally came from England, and an 
ancient Richard Hurd was tutor to the children of the Prince of Wales. The 
genealogy of this branch of the family is still being pursued, but have not car- 
ried it to the same degree of perfection that we have reached with the Bradford, 
Gilbert and Hathaway branch. Gilbert Hathaway and his wife, Mary Hurd, 
resided at Rock Stream during nearly all of their married life. In early times, 
when "gineral trainin' " was in vogue, Gilbert Hathaway kept a hotel at 
Rock Stream, and was always an extensive land owner. He was, as his 
portrait indicates, a man of the cold steel type, very careful and conservative 
in all of his business transactions and close with money matters. He built and 
ran the first sail boat on Senaca Lake that ever carried passengers and freight, 
and in 1 797 had the honor of carrying as royal passengers Louis Philippe, 
afterwards King of France, and his two brothers, from Geneva to Watkins, 
while they were en route from Niagara Falls to Philadelphia. The follow- 
ing incident will serve as an example of his shrewdness, which was related to 
the writer by Mr. William Sharp, of Rock Stream, who, many years ago, was 
a member of the firm of Barnes & Sharp, which conducted a general merchan- 
dise business at Rock Stream, N. Y. Gilbert Hathaway was owing Barnes 
& Sharp a small balance, which had been standing for some time. One day 
Mr. Hathaway entered the store and asked to look at their broadcloths, and 
intimated he wished to buy a suit. After the selection had been made and 

the price fixed, Mr. H asked Mr. Sharp if he would not like to take a 

fine milch cow in trade. As those were the days of exchanging commodities 
for other commodities, Mr. Sharp readily consented, and made an appoint- 
ment to look the cow over, and was well pleased with her at the price de- 
manded, and believed he had made a good exchange in disposing of a suiting 
for the price of a cow. When the cow was delivered Mr. Hathaway re- 
quested Mr. Sharp to give him "a little receipt so he would have something to 
show for the transaction." This Mr. Sharp readily made out and handed to 

Mr. H , who carefully placed it in his pocketbook and departed. Some 

weeks later he presented this receipt for amount involved in the sale of the 
cow, ana asked to have it credited on his account, which, of course, being a 
receipt for cash, had to be thus credited, and an old debt was thus discharged 
at a price for the cow that he could not have secured but for the hope of « 
new sale of a broadcloth suit of clothes. 

Gilbert Hathaway, made up as he was of that stern Puritan stock, 



was always, even to his last days, as primp, prim and precise in his habits 
and dress as the highest educated and most severely disciplined army officer, 
and fully as courageous. Bradford, his eldest son, was the daredevil and 
disturbing element of the family, and gave "Uncle Gilly" no end of cencern, 
and thus, after death, when his will was read, it bequeathed "my son Brad- 
ford one dollar." His other children were submissive and highly respectful, 
and patiently waited "Uncle Gilly's" death for their share of his large estate, 
but Bradford, full of the courage of his father, and the fighting daredevil 
impetuosity of the Hurds, demanded and received, at the end of costly litiga- 
tion "for labor performed," a large share of the estate, but not so great in 
respect to the number of acres, as the other children received. During the 
litigation between "Uncle Gilly" and his son Bradford, an altercation ensued, 
and the latter very disrespectfully and quite forcibly laid hands on his aged 
father, to find himself the next instant insensible upon the ground from a well- 
directed and good, stiff blow on the head from the "old man's" cane. 

May first, 1857, found Gilbert Hathaway and his devoted wife, with 
whom he had so long and happily lived, in excellent health for people above 
their eightieth year, but the wife was stricken down and suddenly died, May 
8, 1857, and so firmly set were the ties of affection that, although without 
any apparent malady, Gilbert Hathaway followed in the wake of the departed 
soul who, for so many years, had been his constant companion, adviser and 
shoulder to shoulder worker — May 31, 1857. 

MARY HURD HATHAWAY 

Mary Hurd, as stated, was the daughter of Richard Hurd and Mary 
Lacy, who, in turn, was the daughter of Judge Lacy, of Litch- 
field County, Connecticut. As an evidence of the dignity and social 
standing of Judge Lacy, I recall when I was a very young boy, 
having heard my father and relatives of his time and age, frequently talk of 
a visit Judge Lacy and his family paid "Hurd's Corners", (Rock 
Stream) during the early part of the Nineteenth Century, and before 
the epoch of railroads, when people traveled by stage and private convey- 
ances. Vermont in those day was the horse mart for the great centers of 
the east, and especially New York City, which then had a population of 
200,000, and her horses, like those of the Arabs, were noted the world over 
for their blue blood, thorough breed and beauty. No wonder, then, that 
Judge Lacy's coming was a wonderful event. I never see in Central Park, 
New York, a beautiful, gorgeously bedecked, prancing team, but what it 
recalls the picture engraved upon my memory by this story of Judge Lacy' 
trip from Litchfield, Conn., to Hurd's Corners and back again. So great was 
the event that Hurd's Corners, which was then one of the places for "Gineral 

10 



Trainin,' ' called out her guards and fired a salute in honor of Judge Lacy 
and Richard Hurd, Sr. (who was, as the story now occurs to me, quite 
lame) the two ancestors of Mary Hurd, and some members of their 
respective families. 

Mary Hurd was a beautiful woman, possessed of a violent temper and 
all kinds of determination. I recall a tale told by my eldest sister, Mary, 




Mary Hurd Hathaway 

to the effect that when my mother (a very mild-tempered woman) had occa- 
sion to employ a little switch in the universal s&heme of discipline then em- 
ployed, she (my sister) would without cause except to attract the attention 
of her grandmother, give vent to unearthly yells, and her grandmother, hear- 
ing Mary's screams, would cry out across a 1 2-acre field to my mother, "Yes, 

n 



that's right; beat her poor little flesh, and when she dies, remember the bruises 
you are now inflicting." To a mother who loves her children, this reminder is 
all-sufficient, and, of course, mother would instantly desist, but the scheme work- 
ed so well that my sister revealed it to my brother and another sister, all of 
whom were much older than the writer. So, thereafter, when either of the 
three were about to get a "trimming," by conspiracy, the whole three would 
begin in concert to howl, which was certain to bring forth a vigorous and not 
altogether refined protest from grandmother. It was said of her that no woman 
in the land had such beautiful jet-black eyes, evidences of which will be found 
by referring to her portrait on page eleven. 

As an evidence of her determined character, the following incident is 
interesting. My father once sustained a severe cut in the abdomen, which 
exposed the intestines. 1 his wound was inflicted in a personal encounter 
with another young man of about his age, who was so badly wounded that 
little hope for his recovery was entertained, so my grandmother, with a com- 
mon needle and a silk thread, sewed up the wound, secreted my father in a 
log barn eleven miles from her home, and at midnight would start and travel the 
distance on horseback to administer to the wants of her boy, which she contin- 
ued to do until both belligerents were out of danger. No woman was ever a 
more devoted wife and mother, or of greater aid, or a better companion to a 
husband, than Mary Hurd was to Gilbert Hathaway, and this brings me to 
the story of my father's life. 

BRADFORD GILBLRT HURD HATHAWAY 

Bradford Gilbert Hurd Hathaway was the eldest child of Gilbert 
Hathaway and Mary Hurd, but how he, through infancy, ever survived that 
name, no one but Molly Hurd could ever explain, and "Brad" Hathaway 
himself, after enduring this burden for 76 years, suddenly died without even 
as much as a glimmer of information as to how he became exposed. That 
is to say, if father ever knew after whom or for what reason the burden was 
fastened upon him for life, he was wise enough not to mention the fact, lest 
the others of his tribe might become infected. So it was left to the author to 
dig out these facts. Having already shown the lines of descent, anyone can 
now readily account for the name. "Bradford," of course, is from William 
Bradford, second Governor of Plymouth Colony; "Gilbert", from Col. 
Thomas Gilbert, and "Hurd," the maiden name of his mother. Bradford 
(I have often heard my great relatives say) "was born with several veils over 
his face." What this means, or what significance it has, I do not know, 
except, when a little boy, it was told to me by these great aunts and other 
aged relatives, that a person so born, possessed the power of seeing into the 
future, and forecasting coming events, and upon this subject, as it relates to my 

12 



father, I shall have something to say before this chapter is closed. At an early 
age, he developed two distinct traits of character — deviltry and inventive 
genius, and if the latter had been properly applied, he would have left much 
more in the way of invention to commemorate his existence. 

During my father's early school days the first steam engines were in- 




Bradford Gilbert Hurd Hathaway 

vented, and having learned their modus operandi, he decided to build one 
after his own ideas, and secretly went about the task. Cooking stoves, in 
those day, were rare household commodities, but my grandfather, at great 
cost, had caused a stove to be shipped to him from Troy, N. Y., by boat and 
ox team, and installed it in his home at Rock Stream. It being the only stove 

13 



in the neighborhood, grandmother, of course, was very proud and choice of it, 
but young Bradford had conceived a very different idea as to its proper utility. 
Having completed his engine, he restlessly awaited an opportunity to give it a 
trial, and the chance came when, on the following Sunday, his parents, con- 
trary to their usual custom, determined to attend church. Taking the iron 
tea kettle, he partly filled it with water, securely fastened the lid, attached 
one end of a pipe to the spout and the other end to his engine, turned on the 
steam, and away his machine flew at a terrible clip. Boy-like, my father was 
so deeply engrossed with the operation of his engine that he did not notice 
the return and entry upon the scene of his mother, who, upon catching a 
glimpse of his high-speed engine, gathered up her skirts after the fashion of a 
ballet dancer and did a semi-circle stunt about her stove, exclaiming as she 
did so, "Oh, my God, my son, you'll bust my stove, you'll bust my stove; 
stop that infernal machine, I pray you, stop it at once," with which fervent 
prayer my father reluctantly complied. In those puritanic days the blue laws 
were in vogue, and to hunt or fish on Sundays was a heinous offense against 
law and order, and the person caught on a Sunday with a gun or rod was 
summarily and severely dealt with. The great passion of the Hathaways. 
has ever been to fish and hunt, and my father did not propose to allow the 
blue laws to interfere with his inbred cravings to hunt even though the day hap- 
pened to be the first in the week. He therefore set to work to construct a gun 
which could be concealed. He first set a steel drill perpendicularly and se- 
curely in an oak block, surrounded by a frame several feet in height. In this 
frame was a cross piece which could be made to slide up and down, and in 
the centre of this cross piece was a steel point. He next procured a piece 
of steel for the gun barrel and "centered" it at both ends. One end of this 
bar of steel he placed upon the point of the drill and the other was entered by 
the steel point in the cross piece above. He then took a "half hitch" with a 
leather strap about the barrel and fastened the ends to two spring poles which 
he had secured on each side of the frame. After his day's work was over, 
in company with his mother, he would repair to the barn, where he had fitted 
up the above described drill, and while his mother would pull at one spring 
pole, he would operate the other and direct the drill. This operation would, 
of course, keep the barrel revolving very rapidly back and forth on the point 
of the drill, until the hole was half way through the piece of steel, when he 
reversed ends and continued as before. When the two holes met they were 
so perfectly in line with each other that the barrel dropped down over the 
drill. He then rigged up a machine for "cutting" the barrel. That is, to 
cut creases on the inside of the barrel in such a manner as to give a twist to 
the bullet as it is discharged from the gun. This accomplished and the handle 



14 



made (for it was a cane gun he was making, which could be carried in the leg 
of his trousers), he was greatly in need of some ornamentation, and to mani- 
fest his gratitude for his mother's help in working the spring poles, he delib- 
erately helped himself to her silver spoons, with which he mounted the handle. 
With his gun he was a sure shot, and to the day of his death he could place 
a ball squarely through the head of a chicken while it was standing in an> 
portion of the yard. During the Pike's Peak craze, this gun was stolen, and 
"Rub" Jones, one of my father's school-boy friends, found it in possession 
of a stranger on the streets of San Francisco, forcibly took it from him 
and returned it to my father. Again, my uncle borrowed this gun, and when 
it was time to return it, refused to give it up, as he claimed my father was 
indebted to him. The result was a law suit in which something over $1,000 
was expended by the litigants, but the gun was restored to its maker. When 
my father died, this gun and a desk which he constructed from "curly maple", 
were the only things he left to me and I prize them both so very highly, that 
I sincerely hope my descendants will as carefully preserve them for many years 
to come as I have cared for them since they have been in my possession. My 
father was the inventor of the first combined separator for threshing grain ever 
made, and applied for and received a patent in 1853, during which year, 
he exhibited this machine at the Crystal Palace Fair in New York, and 
received a medal for his invention. For many years he manufactured this 
machine at Rock Stream and made a great deal of money therefrom. 

He built the shop at Rock Stream in which these machines were made 
and he also built all of the machinery and tools with which they were con- 
structed. The lathes had wooden beds mounted with iron ways upon which 
the tail blocks were moved back and forth. The engine and boiler were of the 
upright pattern and of 20 H. P. capacity. In connection with his machine 
shop, he built a foundry and saw mill, the latter being provided with an 
upright saw, all of which were very primitive when compared with like mach- 
inery manufactured at this time, but for his day and especially in the estimation 
of country folk, my father was considered a wizard in mechanism and came 
naturally by all of his mechanical knowledge and skill, for he had no theoret- 
ical knowledge or training. He was a tall, powerfully built man with large 
bones, hands and feet and possessed the courage of a lion, the strength of a 
giant and the temper of the devil. He inherited his mother's jet black eyes 
and hair, the latter being so very thick, there was no room for it to lie down, 
so it stood up like the quills of a porcupine. Although he was quick tempered 
and often resorted to violent language in the presence of his family, he was a 
great lover of his home and children to whom, and to others, he was generous 
to a fault. While in business at Rock Stream, he did the most of his trading 



is 



at Watkins, and I have known of his missing his train on several occasions, 
but instead of remaining over night, he would walk the distance of seven miles, 
so he could be at home with his family. During the war with the south, we did 
not have an abundance to eat or to wear. I remember a night when father 
started out of the house with something in his arms ; mother begged him not to 
take it away, and I heard him say, "Catherine, it is true this is the last bit of 

flour in the house but -(uttering an oath, for he carried a perpetual 

license to use curse words) no sick child in this community shall go without 
bread as long as we have a crumb in this house." At another time, when quite 
advanced in years, a neighbor with whom he had always been on very friendly 
terms berated him with but slight if any cause. Now it happened my father 
owned the only jack screw in the village, the use of which, on the following day, 
this disrespectful neighbor had great need. Being ashamed of his unmanly 
conduct and fearing to personally ask for this jack screw, he attempted to get 
some neighbor to borrow it for him. Failing in this, he plucked up courage 
to ask my father for the screw, and notwithstanding the insult, the neighbor s 
request was at once granted. In sickness, my father was a natural nurse and 
was greatly concerned over the condition of any neighbor whom he learned was 
ill. Being of a very nervous temperament, he was a poor sleeper and there- 
fore spent many nights administering to the wants of neighbors who were seri- 
ously ill. For a time, when quite a young man, he clerked in a large mercan- 
tile house in New York, and although at that time not acquainted with my 
mother, after marriage, they learned that at the very time my father was clerk- 
ing in New York, my mother was living with a wealthy aunt in the same city. 
While, owing to his father's wealth my father could, no doubt, have taken 
a college course, his education commenced at the district schools and ended 
at Hobart College where he attended for a short season. Mechanism, 
and not book learning, was by nature his, and under such circumstances, 
adopted attainments are of little value. In my younger days I have often 
wondered why father should have left New York and returned to the heart of 
rural environments, but as years gather about my head, I see that he was wise. 
Life is a tremendous struggle at best and verges upon slavery when one :s 
obliged to serve some one else. He had a good home and his father was rich 
so what was the use of his joining the struggling, surging mass of humanity who 
infest the business districts of New York? "With such mechanical ingenuity", 
many acquaintances have asked, "why did he not leave Rock Stream and go 
where his skill would be in greater demand and where his inventions would 
have made him more famous?" But I now see that father was right, he knew 
his limitations as well as his ability. There is where nine tenths of the failures 
occur. This is, in not knowing one's limitations. My father's life long neigh- 



16 



bor, Mr. DeWitt Warner, father of the Hon. John DeWitt Warner, used 
to say, "it is much better to be the head of a mouse than the tail of a rat,' 
so that no doubt, accounts for my father's long stay in the little village of Rock 
Stream. Father loved life and all that nature draws about it, excepting death, 
of which he was in mortal dread. He loved animals, birds, children, music 
and flowers, and made pets of many of God's little creatures. Two little 
brown birds came back each spring from the South for a number of years 
together and built their nest, or reinhabited the old, reared their young and ate 
crumbs from my father's hand. My father would await the coming of these 
little friends as eagerly and wistfully as could any child, and when they did 
come, he would announce that event as joyfully as one could express the return 
of a loved, but long absent friend. The spring at last came when they did 
not return, and a perceptible quiver of the lip was noticeable, as this fact was 
made known to his family. I relate these things because it is the little things 
that mirror the souls of men and because I wish to prepare the reader for that 
which is to follow, for with all of his goodness of heart, for all of his love 
for everything in life and nature that is beautiful, grand and inspiring, he 
was an infidel. He believed in nothing beyond the grave "and for that rea- 
son," he often remarked, "I want to stay on earth as long as I can." No 
God, no harp, or heaven was an incentive for the good he did (and much of 
it he did) but he did it simply and solely for the pleasure it afforded him in 
so doing. So that, on this score, he might be considered a selfish man. That 
he was gifted with the power of seeing into the future, I have no doubt. Many 
times I have been trudging along by his side while he was going in the direc- 
tion pointed out to him to find some person he wished to see, when all of a 
sudden he would stop, wheel about and go in the opposite direction to the side 
of the person he desired to see. In 1 862 my brother George enlisted and 
went to the front. He was short and thick set. Not many months after he 
left home, father insisted that, "A little short fellow who was very dear to us 
was coming home to die." He could not make up his mind that it was George, 
in fact, said it did not appear to him that it was George. But who else could il 
be that was "A little short fellow?" Time soon told who it was. It was our 
own dear cousin, "Johnnie Simmons," who came home from the war ill and 
soon after died, and he tallied exactly with the description father so repeatedly 
gave of the person that came in a vision to him. Father was one of the few 
who could quite as well enjoy a joke told about himself as if told of another. 
He was always delighted to have a house full of visitors, but never enjoyed 
returning the visits. Nothing pleased him more than to have a dance at our 
house for the young people, or to have a crowd come when he was not expect- 
ing them. His meeting my mother was a case of love at first sight, and after 

17 



her departure from the family with whom she had been visiting, he soon fol- 
lowed in his father's best turn out, to her home and, according to the custom 
of the times, begged her father, for his daughter in marriage, which request 
was duly granted and preparations for the wedding at once began. Father was 
born January 8th, 1814; was married December 24th, 1837, and died 
August 25, 1887, and was buried by the side of his father and mother in 
the cemetery at Rock Stream. He was engaged on the day of his death 
building a fence and took hold of a post to straighten it. He gave it a sudden 
jerk and without a murmur, fell dead. The following poem relative to father's 
belief and death was written by my sister, Mary A. Archer: 



IZZJ 



POEM 

Father is dead; the summons came just at the close of day. 

In usual health and while at work, he was suddenly called away 

To a land unknown, unseen, untried, where we have been taught to say, 

If we enter it, we must believe and the debt of nature pay. 

Too well he knew the last was so ; to him all else was doubt ; 

The deep, dark mystery of death, he deemed past finding out. 

And who shall say if he were wrong? Who knows just what is right? 

Who knows if in the "far beyond" it is blissful day or night? 

We all may hope not one can know what lies beyond the grave; 

And all who choose may think, believe, Christ came our souls to save. 
But, if he thought 'twas otherwise, let Charity's mantle fall; 
'Tis a clever cloak and helps to hide the shortcomings of us all. 

CATHARINE ADELIA SHEAR HATHAWAY 

Catherine Adelia Hathaway, the wife of Bradford G. H. Hathaway, 
was the daughter of Reuben Shear and wife, whose maiden name was Lucinda 
Piper, the daughter of Abner Piper. 

Reuben Shear was of German extraction, of very mild temperament, and 
of great activity. In early days he was a merchant of considerable wealth, 
but his most successful avocation seems to have been that of performing his 
part of the task of perpetuating human specie, for with the aid of one faithful 

18 



wife, he brought 1 3 little Shears into this sinful world. I have not been able 

to learn much about the Shear family, although I occasionally run across the 

name, but hope some day to give more time to the study of their genealogy. 

It is sufficient for this brief history of the Hathaways, to say that my mother 
was one of God's noble women. In her religious beliefs, she was directly the 




Catharine Adelia Shear Hathaway 

opposite of my father, for she was a Methodist in all the name implies. She 
was a devoted wife and a loving, kind and gentle mother, who never failed 
to pray for and with her children when she retired and to offer a short prayer 
of thanks upon arising. For a long period she was a great sufferer from some 
of the many female complications but after doctoring with many prominent 

19 



physicians of her time and receiving no relief, she was suddenly relieved from 
her misery and was comparatively healthy during her later life. She was born 
August 10th, 1816 and died May 7th, 1894, and rests in the Rock Stream 
cemetery by the side of her husband, with whom she lived for nearly fifty 
years. 




Mary Adelia Hathaway Archer 
Mary Adelia Hathaway was the eldest child of Bradford G. H. Hathi 
way and Catherine Adelia Shear. She was a pretty child and a beautiful, 
kind hearted, sympathetic and affectionate woman. The name Mary was 
from Mary or Molly Gilbert, her great-grandmother on her father's side, and 
Adelia from her mother. As a girl, she was bright, full of life and love for 

20 



all that was beautiful. She was talented in excess of her girlhood associates 
and possessed a natural aptitude for music and verse which, if they had been 
cultivated, would have reared her high above the field in which she J-ibored 
during her entire life. Her whole nature was ablaze with a zeal for broader 
fields and greater opportunities than those which fall to the lot of a talented 
woman imprisoned during life in such an isolated country hamlet as Rock 
Stream. Why a woman so beautiful and talented, gifted with such pro- 
nounced individuality, must endure a life-long burial in such an unknown portion 
of the earth as that place appearing upon no map, but named Rock Stream, 
is one of the curses which nature inflicts upon its own. Had Mary Hatha- 
way, when she was of marriageable age, resided in New York, she could 
have had her pick of the greatest and best men of that city, but the irony of 
fate confined her during life to the drudgery of ordinary household labor 
including the ironing board and wash tub, which duty was the last she ever 
performed. As energetic and faithful in these mean occupations as she would 
have been in more exalted fields of labor, she, despite of her ill health, de- 
termined to do the family washing at the usual hour, on the usual Monday, 
during which operation, she contracted pneumonia and died suddenly a few 
days later, uttering as the life left her body these words, "Jim, I am dying." 
"Why, Mate, no, you are not," was her husband's reply. "Yes, Jim, I am 
dying, be good to Fred. Good bye," and all was over. "Jim" was her hus- 
band; James M. Archer to whom she was married in 1860. There was only 
one child, Fred C. Archer, who at this time, 1 909, is chief of the accounting 
department of the United States Express Co., No. 555 West 23rd Street, 
New York. Mary Hathaway Archer was born at Rock Stream, N. Y., 
March 30, 1 839, and died February 1 2, 1 894, and her remains are interred 
in the Archer lot in the Rock Stream cemetery. The following poem was 
written by Mary Hathaway Archer, at the death of Harry B. Hathaway, in- 
fant son of Charles F. Hathaway. 

Only a little flower, plucked by the way. 
Given in Thy keeping as it were for a day. 

Only another lambkin gathered in the fold, 

Only another cherub walks the "Streets of gold." 
Only another sunbeam peeping through the cloud. 
Darling little Harry wrapt in his shroud. 

Only another mother plunged in deepest gloom. 

A little loved one sleeping in the silent tomb. 

21 



Estelle Maria Hathaway was the second child born to Bradford G. H. 
Hathaway and his wife Catherine. The name Maria was that of her father'? 
sister, but no one seems to know from whom the name Estelle was taken. She 
was a mighty good, kind hearted girl and with her sister Mary, her childhood 
life was as happy and sunny as any young life could be. She was a hard work- 
er and gave the better part of her life to the duties that crowded upon her in 




Estelle Maria tlathaway 

her parents' home. Although many opportunities of marriage to well to do men 
presented themselves, she declined all such and devoted herself, until quite 
advanced in years, to the care of her parents. She was born at Rock Stream, 
N. Y., October 3, 1840, and died at Muncie, Ind., November 29. 1907, 
c.nd is buried in Beach Grove Cemetery, near said city. 

22 



George Maltby Hathaway was the first boy born unto Bradford and 
Catherine Hathaway and of course it was the greatest event of their lives, for 
it was a boy they expected and wanted on the two former occasions. George 
was named after his uncle by marriage, George Simmons, and Maltby was in 
honor of his father's great friend whose surname was Maltby, and who for 




George Maltby Hathaway 

many years was a merchant at Dundee, N. Y. With a boy and two girls, the 
Hathaway-Shear union struck, and for a period of eleven years the baby busi- 
ness was tied up. In the estimation of his parents, no event ever before took 
place that, in any particular, compared with the coming of this long expected 
and much prayed for first born boy, and he and his sister Mary were the "its" 



23 



of their hour. George was a good boy and as good looking as they made them 
and he grew up to be a handsome, gentlemanly, well cultured and highly 
groomed man. It always seemed to be a case of mutual admiration at first 
sight between all the handsome refined ladies he met and himself, for an army 
of such were his friends. His first great move was to enlist as a soldier and 
then regret very much for having done so, for George was a much better eater 
and sleeper than a fighter. His military record was not as creditable as were 
the records of his ancestors,— the Hurds. The instant his ear caught the 
sound of artillery, he at once affirmed the debatable subject, "the pen is might- 
ier than the sword," and to exemplify his decided convictions upon this point, 
he accepted a clerkship in the war department at Washington, where he served 
his country to a greater advantage than his courage would have permitted him 
to have served it with a musket. The war over, George returned and his 
father was so delighted to have him home again, that he took him in as a full 
Hedged partner in the manufacture of plows at Rock Stream, underline firm 
name of "Hathaway & Son", which was dubbed by his associates as "Pa and 
Pard." It was a standing joke that was passed around to the effect that "Pa 
made and sold the plows and Pard spent the proceeds." George was a great 
lover of home and his mother's apple pies, and on many occasions returned to 
his native hive to support his parents, but the rule was somehow always reversed. 
As a mechanic, he was fine and could make anything from a watch to a Corliss 
engine and on all occasions executed his work in beautiful form. He was a 
fine workman and good inventor. He helped design and put the machinery in 
the first sub-marine monitor ever put to a practical test, called the "Peace- 
maker," which went down with two Herald reporters on board, in New \ ork 
harbor, and failed to come up, but the reporters by a miracle, and more dead 
than alive, managed to get through the hatch and float to the top. He invent- 
ed the first plates which joins together the ends of railway iron, now known <s 
"Fish plates," but did not think his device was of sufficient value to get it pat- 
ented, and here he let a great fortune escape him. His last invention, and 
upon which he worked many years, was a smokeless high explosive, which he 
subjected to all manner of tests to demonstrate its non-explosiveness, except 
by the peculiar cap or detonator he employed. About the time witnesses to 
these tests had resolved in their own minds that the stuff was of no value, he 
would insert one of his own peculiarly constructed caps, fire the fuse, and the 
destructive properties were something terrible. The anxiety caused by handling 
this powerful agent of death and devastation, coupled with his unnatural appe- 
tite for food and tobacco, was, at the very moment a great fortune seemed his, 
the cause of his sudden death. Capitalists who were to witness a demonstration 
he was to have given on the day of his burial were entertained by his son, and 
the trade started by his father was partially carried through, but nothing like 



24 



the money realized that he would have received had he lived. My brother', 
death was the greatest loss I ever sustained for he was my confidant, sympa- 
thizer and comforter, and to this day I miss him more than all other friends 
or relatives who have "passed on." George M. Hathaway was born at 
Rock Stream, N. Y., June 22, 1 842, and died at Wellsboro, Pa., April 
1 903, and his remains are interred in the pretty little cemetery at that place. 




Charles Frank Hathaway 

He left a widow and three children named George, Heveran and Tina. The 
daughter is married and lives at Hammondsport, N. Y., but the two boys live 
with their mother at Wellsboro, Pa. There is another son by his first wife, 
named Bradford Lee Hathaway, who is living on a farm at Montour Falls, 

N. Y. 

25 



Charles Frank Hathaway was the youngest by eleven years of the chil- 
dren of Bradford G. H. Hathaway and his wife Catherine, was born 
at Rock Stream, May 7th, 1 854, and at the present writing is still very much 
on earth. His early occupation was that of a telegrapher and stenographer, 
but he was afterwards admitted to the practice of law, first in Indiana and next 
in Ohio, and still later in Buffalo, N. Y., where his partner, Montgomery 
Gibbs, while walking up Delaware Ave., was shot to death by foot-pads, 
which dissolved the firm of Gibbs and Hathaway. In the spring of 1877, it 
Francisville, Ind., Charles Frank Hathaway married Malinda Caroline Brew- 
er, daughter of John C. Brewer and his wife Mary Wilhite. By this mar- 
riage there were six children: — 

Celia Estelle, Bradford Gilbert, Fred Heath, 

Frank Cerrillos, Florence Hazel, Harry Brewer, 

Celia Estelle married Harry B. Harpending, of Dundee, N. Y., by 
whom there are two children. Harry Brewer Hathaway died at Celina, Ohio, 
about the year 1 888, when he was six years of age, was buried there, but later 
was exhumed and reinterred at Rock Stream, where the remains are resting in 
the Hathaway plot. Bradford Gilbert, married Hazel Thorpe, of Minetto, N. 
Y., but later she secured a divorce and is now residing with her parents at that 
place. Bradford was again married to a Miss Marie Cotrell, of Richmond, 
Va., and at this date (May, 1908) resides at Scranton, Pa. Fred Heath and 
Florence Hazel (the two last named are twins), reside with their mother at 
Elmira, N. Y. In May, 1903, the supreme court of New York granted 
Linda C. Hathaway a divorce and Charles F. Hathaway soon after married 
Norma I. Petigny, the widow of Phelix Petigny of New York, and one son, 
Gilbert Hurd Hathaway, born September 1 4th, 1 904, has come as a blessing 
to this marriage. After the untimely death of his law partner in 1 894, C. F. 
Hathaway left Buffalo, and took up his residence in New York, where he is 
now engaged in special work of various kinds, particularly that of investigating 
business enterprises for the benefit of which wealthy people are solicited to con- 
tribute funds. With this brief sketch of the writer's own lite and appreciating 
that nicer things are said of one after death than while living, we will leave to 
others, if any there should ever be, who desire to continue this history of the 
Hathaway family, the task of recording the good or bad traits of the writer. 



®^3) 



26 




Gilbert Hurd Hathaway 

A FEW TRAITS OF THE HATHAWAY TRIBE. 



If a Hathaway has a hog which shows some signs of good breeding, he 
will at once become interested in its pedigree and expend large sums to trace 
its ancestry, and this peculiar freak of nature is also characteristic of many 
other prominent Americans. I could never understand why this should be 
so, except all persons feel, as did the writer, when he first took up his work of 
research. Full of "ginger," in his boyhood days, and sorely given to mis- 
chievous pranks, he justly earned the reputation of being the "worst devil" in 
his little old home hamlet, and as one is made to feel, so he is, and so he 
feels his ancestors must have been, and thus felt the scribe. Possessed of an 



27 



inbred desire to know more of his strain of blood, he, at the outset proceeded 
with "fear and trembling," lest he would find too many who had worn the 
stripes, not mentioning those who escaped the just punishment of so doing. But 
the conditions are now reversed ; we are looking for the Hathaway who has 
ever been punished for crime. The worst I have ever discovered that mitigates 
against the purity of the stock, is a colored man by the name, 
but at once excused the circumstances by making the following entry in my 
note book, "adopted." Keeping the record of hogs is part of the duty of 
breeders, but to side step and keep a record of American families is too costly 
and strenuous an undertaking to engage the attention of any one excepting a 
crank. Then, too, the fear of running against a bog trotting Mick, or a beer 
bloated Dutchman, here in America, are, I am painfully aware, the reasons 
that many of our wealthier subjects do not delve into the history of their 
respective families. 

Here I present to all Hathaways, no matter how the name may have been 
adulterated by alteration in spelling, and to all persons who have ever been 
Hathaways or ever had an ancestor by the name, as they set forth upon their 
voyage of investigation and research, a clean clearance bill of which they may 
be justly proud. Then why do not such wealthy men as Henry H. Rogers (if 
his mother or grandmother was a Hathaway) Mrs. Susan G. Winpenny, a 
very estimable and prominent society lady of Philadelphia, whose grand- 
father was a son of Thomas Hathaway and Molly Gilbert; Mr. Henry 
Hathaway, one of Rochester's wealthiest citizens, Mr. Charles Hathaway, the 
millionaire note broker of Wall Street, New York, clubman and society 
leader of the Oranges, or some of the wealthy Hathaway widows of New 
Bedford, Mass., write, or cause to be written, a book containing every branch 
of the tribe and thus perpetuate the name for all time to come. The great 
iron master employes the wealth which he says is his only in trust to fasten upon 
the minds of future generations and a perpetual debt upon the shoulders of the 
people for the maintenance of the libraries he builds to perpetuate the name 
"Carnegie"; Rockefeller endows churches and colleges, with the same object 
in view, while Rogers and Flagler build railways through wind, water and 
sunshine, that they may hear the toot of their whistles as they gaze with pride 
through the portals of their respective future abodes upon their grand achieve- 
ments here below. Then why should the Hathaways or any one who can claim 
a drop of the blood, not be proud that they do not have to resort to such ex- 
treme artificial measures to keep the name ever in the histories of great names 
and of great families? 

To Mrs. Susan G. Winpenny I present the following beautiful tribute 
to her grandmother, Mary Botsford, the wife of Thomas Hathaway, Jr. 

Mrs. Thomas Hathaway, Jr. 

28 



Mrs. Mary Botsford Hathaway, whose life began before the birth of 
our National Independence, and continued until after the close of the rebellion 
of 1861, was among the early settlers of Ontario, now Yates County, New 
York, and her history is preserved as one of the representative women in the 
settlement of that part of this country. She was born in New Milford, Con- 
necticut, in Jan. 1772, and, as she possessed a most remarkable memory, she 
related in after years many interesting incidents of the Revolutionary War. 

1 792, Mrs. Hathaway, with her brother, joined her father's family at the 
Friend's Settlement in the wilderness of Western New York — her father, Elna- 
than Botsford, having emigrated from New Milford, Conn., the year previous 
(1791) leaving his daughter in the family of her uncle, Judge Buckingham. 
As transportation was more easy by sleighs and sleds, and as no individual 
traveled alone for fear of Indian depredations, they made their journey in Jan- 
uary in the company of a large party of gentlemen going west to seek their 
fortunes. 

Among them were the Wadsworths, General William, and his brother 
James, subsequently conspicuous in Geneseo, N. Y. Also Judges Chipman 
and Barlow, who settled in Canandaigua. The party had eleven sleighs, and 
were seventeen days going a distance that would now be traveled in less than 
twenty-four hours. Mrs. Hathaway, as one of the three ladies of the party, 
always spoke of the journey as a most pleasant era in her life, although her 
discouragements were very great on her arrival at the settlement, for she found 
there very few of the comforts of a regular home, and to the Universal Friend 
she was an unwelcome member in her community, for she very well knew Mrs. 
H. had no sympathy with her religious views, and never hesitated to 
assert her own, or give her opinion at any time in her presence. On her 
first acquaintance, Mrs. H. ridiculed, before the face of the Friend, her author- 
itative manner over her followers. For this act, the Friend declared her "an 
unregenerate child," and said "her name ought to have been Vexation," and 
took great pains while in New Milford to be censorious in her discourses to- 
wards her disobedient and rebellious children. 

As Thomas Hathaway, Jr., settled upon a large tract of land in Milo, 
Yates County, at the time of their marriage in 1 793, with the forest still stand- 
ing, Mrs. Hathaway had many reminiscences to relate in after years of pleasure 
realized, hardships endured, and dangers from wild animals and Indians to 
fear. 

After a few years of forest life, Mrs. Hathaway saw one day from her 
window a stranger on horseback emerging from the woods, with leather saddle- 
bags dangling on each side of the animal, and a large valise strapped to the 
back of the saddle. Un a near approach, it proved to be General Wadsworth, 

29 



the previous traveling companion of Mrs. Hathaway, who had been from 
Geneseo to Utica for shopping, and had turned many miles away from the 
direct road to pay her a visit. The leather bags contained window glass, nails 
and hinges, cotton cloth, calico, broadcloth, tea, coffee, sugar, thread, 
needles, pins and etc. — all that a household was expected to require for a very 
long time in those days. General Wadsworth complimented Mr. and Mrs. 
Hathaway upon the symmetry and neatness of their rustic home and pronounced 
them extremely aristocratic, for they were indulging in two rooms and an oven, 
while his habitation had only one room and no oven. 

Before the ax had cleared away much of the wild wood that surrounded 
their home, it was necessary to keep the domestic animals in little pens near 
enough the house to have an eye over their safety. One morning, after Mr. 
Hathaway had left home on official business and the hired man had gone to 
ihe woods to work, Mrs. H. heard an outcry among the swine, caused by the 
presence of a bear peering through the slats of the pen. Said she, "I was 
obliged to stand a long time upon my door-step and float a white cloth in the air 
to frighten the bear. He would look at the swine and then at me, as if he 
hardly knew which to take." After many weary hours Bruin sauntered off 
without committing any depredations. 

It is a rare occurrence for any new country to be at first settled by gentle- 
men of so high an order of talents and integrity as was the Genesee; and the 
house of Mr. Hathaway was one of hospitality; they entertained and enjoyed 
the society of cultivated people, although the country was for many years rough 
and forbidding. 

During the war with Great Britain of 1812 Mrs. H. was particularly 
conspicuous in her kind attentions to the weary officers who passed through 
the country on military errands, and at the time of her death a general of the 

war remarked that "that intelligent lady was not aware how much she was 
admired, not only for her zeal and patriotism in the cause of her country at 
that trying period, but for her excellent judgment, general knowledge and au- 
thentic and useful information she often gave of the passing events of the day." 

In 1814 the famous Dr. Joshua Lee, a surgeon on the frontiers at 
Niagara, sent a letter to Mr. Hathaway by a wounded soldier, who returned 
home to their neighborhood from the army. Mr. Hathaway was absent 
at the time it came to hand, and Mrs. Hathaway thought it to be an important 
communication, as it was in regard to the Six Nations of Indians on the Mo- 
hawk River, and perhaps contained information necessary at headquarters. She 
lost no time in sending it to Colonel Robert Troup, of Geneva, who always 
reminded her of the favor whenever they met in after years. 

The mind of Mrs. Hathaway retained its capacities to near the close of 

30 



a long and useful life. She read much, particularly the Scriptures, with which 
she was especially conversant. Her religious sympathies were mainly with the 
Methodist and she was many years a communicant with that denomination. 

In politics she was a strong Whig, and always kept herself informed upon 
the political topics of the day. 

At the opening of the rebellion of 1861 she expressed a regret that she 
had lived to see her country at war a third time. Her death occurred November 
3d, I 866, in the 96th year of her age, having survived her husband thirteen 
years. 

NOTES. 

William Bradford, yeoman of Austerfield, England (wife's name un- 
known) had a son William Bradford, Jr., who married in 1 584 Alice Hanson. 

William, Jr. and Alice (Hanson) Bradford had a son William Brad- 
ford (3d) born 1589. 

This William Bradford (3d) born 1589 was the Pilgrim who became 
Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony. His first wife Dorothy May, was 
drowned while landing in Plymouth Harbor in 1620. In 1623 Gov. Brad- 
ford married for his 2d wife Mrs. Alice Southworth, widow of Edward, and 
daughter of Alexander Carpenter of England. 

Gov. William Bradford (3d) and wife Alice Carpenter-Southworth had 
a son Williarn (4th) born, 1624, who married Alice Richards. 

This was the third pair of " William and Alice" in direct line. 

William (4th) is known as Major William Bradford by reason of mili- 
tary service. Major William (4th) and Alice (Richards) Bradford, had a 
son Samuel who in 1 689 married Hannah Rogers. 

Samuel and Hannah had a daughter born I 689, who in I 709, married 
Nathaniel (4th) Bradford Gilbert of Taunton, son of "Ensign" Thomas 
Gilbert (3d). 

Nathaniel (4th) and Hannah (Bradford) Gilbert had children Thomas 
(5th) and Nathaniel Jr. (5th) also a daughter Wealthy Gilbert, who married 
Ebenezer Hathaway, and possibly other children. 

"Ensign" Thomas Gilbert (3rd) (son of Thomas 2nd) and wife of 
Jane Rossiter. Sir John Gilbert (1st) was as will be noticed a grandson )i 
Sir John Gilbert (ist) who was in Dorchester, Mass., in 1636 with grownup 
sons, namely Thomas (2nd) (called Ensign) John (2nd) Jr. and Giles 
(2nd). 

"Ensign" Thomas (2nd). son of Sir John Gilbert (1st) married Jane 
Rossiter, daughter of Hugh. 

Sir John Gilbert (Ist) was son of Otho Gilbert of England. Otho 

3] 

4487 195 



had three children —Sir Humphrey Gilbert (the distinguished navigator;) Sir 
John and Adrian. These three children of Otho had a half brother, Sir Wal- 
ter Raleigh, born twelve years later, their mother having married a second time. 

Colonel Thomas Gilbert married Mary Godfrey and had Thomas Jr., 
born 1738; married 1765, Elizabeth Tisdale; also a son Bradford Gilbert, 
born 1 746, who married Mary Tisdale, of Freetown, Mass. Bradford died in 
New Brunswick in 1814. 

I judge that "Col." Thomas Gilbert was Thomas (5th) son of Nathan- 
iel (4th) and wife Hannah Bradford, (great-granddaughter of Gov. Brad- 
ford) "Col." Thomas probably named his son Bradford in honor of his 
mother's maiden name. 

Col. Thomas's son Bradford Gilbert, born Jan. 27, 1 746, married Nov. 
21, 1776, Mary Tisdale of Freetown, Mass. He died (Bradford) in St. 
John, New Brunswick, in 1814, as already noted. 




Gilbert Hurt! Hathaway 



32 



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